The Head of Communications & Media to provide an update on Devon County Council communications and campaigns, including the Spread a Little Kindness Campaign. Also, an update from the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Exeter on the ongoing work to ensure the safe return of students home.
Minutes:
The Head of Communications & Media provided an update on Devon County Council communications and campaigns, including the Spread a Little Kindness Campaign.
The presentation raised key points, including:
• Since December 2, messages had been focused on making people in Devon aware of the Tier 2 restrictions and information they need for the Christmas period regarding travel and bubbles;
• there was a compliance campaign running across the Local Resilience Forum area (Devon, Plymouth and Cornwall) thanking people for following the rules, asking people to keep going: it’s for now, not forever and reminding them to get information from trusted sources and not to share misinformation;
• Communications continued to build and maintain trust in local Team Devon response by being transparent;
• Spread a Little Kindness and be an Everyday Hero Campaigns
• How to be a Hero at home, Hands, Face, Space messaging - reminding people not to drop their guard at work; and,
• The Spread a Little Kindness Campaign – being shared across DCC social media.
The Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Exeter provided the Board with an update on the ongoing work to ensure the safe return of students home and also back to University in the new year. Since September, the University had been running a testing process to be able to test pupils quickly, get results quickly and isolate quickly. There had been a significant outbreak at the University in the early part of term and since mid-September the University had tested over 7,000 people, with over 1,500 positive cases and 6,000 people were isolated over the last term. In addition, students had been kept in households for an additional month as a further precaution, which had meant that transmission into the wider public had been very low.
General testing at the University was now recording no positive cases and was numbers were lower than the Devon average.
To help students return home for Christmas, the University conducted 6,200 Lateral Flow Tests between 30 November and 9 December. Out of the 6,200 tests done, there were only 2 positive cases. PCR tests were also used for those students that required a certificate for international travel. Approximately 10% of students had remained in university accommodation over the Christmas period, with most having returned home.
For the start of the new term in January, the University had signed up for a Government Scheme to continue testing, which involved conducting 50,000 tests over January. A significant concern was people mixing over the Christmas period and then coming back to university. As a result, and to help manage the number of tests to be carried out, students return to Exeter would be staggered in three stages, with a schedule for student testing on their return. Every student would be asked to complete two tests and a recent survey showed 87% of students said they wanted to do a test when they come back in January.
The Board also noted that the level of detection of the virus in drains and sewers coming out of the university was virtually non-existent.
The Board recorded its thanks for all the effort both staff and students at the university had put into testing, monitoring, isolating and managing the containment of the virus to avoid further spread into the community.